Cannabis News TLDR / Table of Contents

Most people who smoke pot enjoy it, but a smaller proportion experience psychotic-like symptoms, such as feeling suspicious or paranoid. The question that polarises researchers is whether smoking cannabis is associated with a risk of developing psychotic problems, such as schizophrenia, in the long term.

The question that polarises researchers is whether smoking cannabis is associated with a risk of developing psychotic problems, such as schizophrenia, in the long term.

Other studies suggest that, compared with healthy controls, people with schizophrenia have more psychotic-like experiences when they use cannabis.

And those at higher risk of schizophrenia that is, people with genetic or psychological risk factors for the disease tend to have more psychotic-like experiences.

If these are the people who are stopping using cannabis, they may offset their risk of developing schizophrenia from cannabis use.

The best study to confirm the hypothesis would be a long-term study mapping cannabis experiences to schizophrenia risk, drawn from the general population, but this would be a long and expensive study to do.

Results showed that laws that let people use marijuana to treat specific medical conditions were associated with about a 6 per cent lower rate of opioid prescribing for pain.

That suggest the medical marijuana laws didn’t reach some people who could benefit from using marijuana instead of opioids, said Hefei Wen of the University of Kentucky in Lexington, one of the study authors.

Researchers found that Medicare patients in states with marijuana dispensaries filled prescriptions for about 14 percent fewer daily doses of opioids than those in other states.

W. David Bradford, an economist at the University of Georgia in Athens who’s an author of the second study, said the results add to other findings that suggest to experts that marijuana is a viable alternative to opioids.

They called for states and the federal government to pay for more studies to clarify the effect of marijuana use on opioid use, saying such research is needed for science to guide policy-making.

In her letter to Wilson-Raybould, Sarauer wrote, it is unfair and unjust for Saskatchewan people to continue to be burdened with criminal records for possession of cannabis for engaging in activity that will be legal and regulated a few months from now.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale has also said officials are examining all the legal implications for possible pardons, or record suspensions, for criminal records for cannabis.